Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell is aiming to build on the encouraging results he collected during the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season opener at Brands Hatch as the series returns to the Kent circuit this weekend for the eighth round of the year.

Back in April, Martyn produced one of his most impressive weekends since moving up to the BTCC at the start of last year, with his ex-WTCC BMW 320i being much closer to the pace than had been the case the previous season on the tight and twisty Indy circuit.

Although unable to secure a points finish from the weekend, Martyn was just outside the top ten in each of the three races and will now hope to use the data and information the team collected back in April to push for his second top ten finish of the campaign – adding to the fine tenth place he secured at Oulton Park.

“In the past, I’ve never been a huge fan of Brands, but my mind is changing and I’m very much looking forward to the weekend,” he said. “We are going there with some good data and settings for the car from the opening rounds of the season and that means we have more of a head start than we had back in April.

“The car was the best it’s ever been after our test in Spain and since then we have kept improving and have learnt more about it. Hopefully we can use the data we have and keep the improvements coming to get ourselves towards the top ten.

“It will be close this weekend on the Indy circuit, it always is, and there are going to be some mirrors lost and panels damaged. It’ll be a good weekend for the fans and anything could happen.”

This weekend’s coverage of the BTCC on ITV has been significantly improved, with delayed coverage of race one being followed by race two live on ITV4 between 12.30pm and 2.30pm. The regular coverage on ITV1 will then air from 2.50pm to 4.20pm – which will include highlights of races one and two followed by the third race live.